Off the Cut Podcast

We’re back at it and diving into the most polarizing topic on the internet: how to pronounce tool brands. Whether you’re Team Blum or Team Bloom, we've got thoughts. We also debate the merits of hiring out chores—is paying the neighborhood lawn guy or a dog walker worth the money, and more importantly, do you actually tip them? Because tipping culture is the wild west of financial gratitude. T...

Grab a seat and a cold drink; you’re right on time. We're back in the shop and diving straight into the usual chaos. Deric is healing up nicely from his surgery, sporting a fresh medical-grade WWE championship belt and plotting some 3D-printed accessories. Meanwhile, Eric takes us on a trip down memory lane to recount the sheer terror of meeting a girlfriend's dad at fifteen—a man who casu...

We are thrilled to report that Deric is back. He’s fresh out of the hospital after an emergency surgery. While he was stuck in a hospital bed eavesdropping on a mysterious old lady who woke up with a broken hip, Eric has been watching the charred remains of his neighbor's house get picked apart by a ServPro investigation team. We've got some serious concerns about local construction safety...

With Deric out sick, Eric and Zac are left to hold Off The Cut together on their own, which goes about as smoothly as expected. This week, they talk course launches, woodworking content, Gorilla Glue, CA glue storage, and the chaos that happens when the tech guy is missing. Eric also shares a trip to the Cincinnati Zoo where he watched someone ignore every survival instinct and pet a cheetah throu...

We're breaking down the unspoken rules of hobbies—like why rolling up to a hockey game with white gloves or carrying a pristine, scratch-free skateboard automatically makes you look like a total noob. We vent about the absolute misery of video editing software when it inexplicably pauses your render at 12% for days, eating up 40+ hours of troubleshooting to no avail. We also dive into the absu...

Welcome back to the shop, friends. We're kicking things off with the bizarre mystery of the YouTube algorithm—specifically how a 40-minute, 10-out-of-10 stinker of a garage upgrade video miraculously resurrected itself after a long Memorial Day weekend Deric scored a 16-speed Central Machinery drill press at a yard sale for 30 bucks, which naturally leads to us brainstorming how to custom-pain...

We're back and diving straight into the harsh realities of creating content when the algorithm clearly prefers confirmation bias over the actual, frustrating truth. Zac gives us the rundown on a speaker build that required way more technical tweaking than those viral DIY videos ever admit, and we debate if the new Kreg joinery tool actually has what it takes to dethrone the Festool Domino, or...

We’re diving headfirst into the latest woodworking drama: Kreg's new "loose tenon joiner" and whether it actually has the precision (and the legal clearance) to dethrone the almighty Festool Domino. Zac is currently trapped in sponsor approval purgatory with his next video, leading us down a rabbit hole of agency contracts, vanity URLs, and why DIY foam speakers actually sound surpri...

We’re back in the shop (and the dentist's chair) this week. Zac’s sporting a brand-new crown, while someone else is apparently gaining 15,000 followers by pretending to be him. Deric got a whole ten-cent payday from Facebook monetization, and we dive deep into the absolute absurdity of the iTunes gift card scam—seriously, who is buying 100 Katy Perry singles in 2026? We also explore the dark s...

This week, we dive into the frustrations of "dumb" machines and the realities of DIY projects that turn into total replacements. Zac vents about his CNC snapping bits and its lack of "intelligence" compared to modern 3D printers, while Eric recounts his sweaty adventures installing a Tesla charger in a hot attic—complete with a surprising win at the hardware store checkout. The...

Zac and Deric are flying solo this week! While Eric enjoys some time away, the guys get into the weeds on Zac’s new course (it’s like launching a whole new channel) and the gear grinding feeling of switching between tasks. The conversation drifts all over the place, much like that old Dodge in the driveway—from cinder-block furniture in early lofts to the dream of forklift-powered home elevators....

We finally solve the mysteries of the universe—or at least the ones involving aluminum cans and why your garage door is trying to kill you. We dive into the "uncanny valley" of AI-generated emails that try just a little too hard to be your friend, and why Eric would rather do drywall every day than ever touch rubber gym flooring again. If you’ve ever wondered about the surface area to vo...

This week, we’re officially declaring a boycott on Bubly—they took away our little tab greetings, and frankly, we’re taking it personal. Once we cool off, we dive into Zac’s latest Steam Machine build, the logistics of launching his new course, and the wild world of fake email addresses. That naturally leads to Eric confessing his life of crime and getting detained by the police in 7th grade over...

Let’s be honest, half of this episode is just us battling the machines. Eric finally figures out why his gigabit internet is crawling (spoiler: mesh networks are liars), and Zac drops some serious cash on a Wi-Fi 7 router only to realize it sounds like last Thanksgivings turkey in the dryer on perma-press. We also dive deep into the current state of AI—from how “tokens” actually work to why chatbo...

We are back for Episode 210, and despite the technical gremlins trying to take down the live stream early on, we made it through. This week, Deric is back from Hawaii with a harsh reality check about trying to edit video on an airplane. Zac is deep in the trenches of filming his new console modding courses and discovering that recording voiceovers might actually be a form of physical torture. Mean...

Eric and Zac try to hold down the fort while Deric is soaking up the sun in Hawaii , and predictably, it ends with Eric's internet dying and a desperate pivot to the aftershow. Before the total system failure, the guys actually covered a lot of ground. Zac breaks down the absolute necessity of negotiating everything from your Adobe subscription to a root canal. Eric shares his nightmare week r...

We challenged Deric to keep up an Irish accent for the whole show, he didn't even last three seconds. We kick things off with a reality check on the recent windstorms that turned our backyards into obstacle courses and honest landscapers into price gouging armies.  Zac gets brutally honest about his latest project: XPS foam panel speakers . After being bought into the YouTube hype, he discover...

We are bleeding money this week. Eric accidentally spends over $600 on just three sheets of walnut plywood after dealing with a breathless customer service rep. We also dive into Eric's new standing desk build, Zac’s genius idea to 3D print cages for power bricks, and why a $1,000 office chair might actually be worth it. Zac reveals the 3-point suspension system for his "Invisible Foam Sp...

We are investigating a potential crime ring in our own Patreon after the same person wins the giveaway... again. Are we rigging it? (Legally: No. Comically: Maybe). Zac explains why he is gluing foam insulation to his wall to create "Invisible Speakers" and why Fusion 360 thinks every piece of wood weighs 2,000 pounds. Deric opens up about the anxiety of a video release and shares the pa...

We are kicking off this week with a massive confession: Eric accidentally stained... you know what, you'll have to listen to find out, it's just too good. We also debate the legal ethics of telling your lawyer you are actually guilty of jaywalking, pitch the concept of the "YouTube Olympics" to see which influencers can actually back up their skills live, and discover the terrify...

We get deep in the weeds of YouTube strategy this week, debating whether ThumbnailTest.com is actually better than YouTube's native A/B testing tool, and why creating "composite" thumbnails is the ultimate creator hack (even if they look ridiculous up close). We roast the lazy corporate use of AI—from terrible automated meeting recaps to unsolicited "improved" thumbnails th...

We are breaking down the "AI Lottery" theory—the idea that AI multiplies who you already are (so if you're a bad creator, you'll just be a 100x bad creator). We also confess to our "Photoshop Stupidity," specifically the years spent searching for fonts because we didn't know how to stroke the text. Eric shares his "Honda Fit Mystery," where an alarming &qu...

We are diving into the cult of "Gridfinity" to decide if it’s actually the ultimate organization system or just a hobby that eats up 80 hours of print time to save you 4 seconds. We also share our (possibly unethical) Amazon return hacks to avoid shipping fees, discuss the "Infinite Filament Glitch" on Maker World, and debate the controversial topic of Drill Clutches (do they a...

Zac is back from exile (vacation), and we waste no time launching a conspiracy theory that the "Shop Sounds" podcast is inflating their giveaway numbers. We dive deep into "AI Psychosis" and the Mandela Effect—debating whether the seahorse emoji ever existed and if the Fruit of the Loom logo actually had a cornucopia (it did and Zac will fight anyone who says different). Eric s...

We made it to Episode 200, and we celebrated by... getting rid of Zac? With the third host "exiled," Eric and Deric take the wheel to discuss the absolute nightmare of installing ceiling fans on 18-foot vaulted ceilings—including the terror of "lean-to" ladders and why "Integrated LEDs" are the worst invention in lighting history. Eric discusses his new "Mail Slo...